"It could be. Or it's just the way life is," Lemaire said. "If you do get waived, it's because things are not going well. You're not playing up to your potential. There is something wrong there with your game. And the guy knows that. 'I'm not in the lineup. I have to get time and play on a steady line and play 12-15 minutes.'

"And then the guy gets waived, he comes back and he's trying to push a little more because he knows if this doesn't work he's going down. He gets another chance and sometimes they come out if it. Other times to me it's just life the way it is."

Salmela has been a different player since going unclaimed.

"Right now we're happy because he's playing well," Lemaire said. "Definitely we were looking for a defenseman that was going to be steady. Hopefully he's going to stay like this.

"The thing is, he doesn't gamble as much as he used to. When you do gamble, the first time you get beat maybe they won't score. Second time they won't score. Then they start to score every time on every gamble."

The change in Salmela happened quickly.

"The first game he came back and played," the coach noted. "Every time a player struggles, we always ask him to make the easy play. You start with this and you try to build up confidence. But Sami, when he first played, felt, 'This is not good enough for me. I want to do something else. I want to get (pass to) the guy behind the two forwards. And behind the truck. Now he can do more. He skates with the puck. He built up confidence."